PSA: No more new Basic Accounts

[pne]

Do you read news? (If not, you should.)

Did you read in the recent entry that it will not be able to create new Basic Accounts in the future? It says it right there: Other changes you may have noticed are the logged-out homepage and registration process for new users. We streamlined and simplified things so that now it’s faster and easier than ever to create a LiveJournal account.

Oh? It doesn't say anything about Basic Accounts there? You're right, it doesn't -- you have to learn about that from word of mouth or from reading comments on the entry by Jason Shellen, VP of Product Development for LiveJournal.

Anyway. Users who signed up before the magic date (12 March 2008) (or, equivalently, have a userid less than 15136000) will be able to convert back and forth between Basic and Plus, but newer accounts will have to be either Plus or Paid. Because three account levels when signing up for a new account too confusing, and two is much better.

(And I believe the Advisory Board was asked for, and provided, advice, which was apparently ignored.)

So now you have users mad about the whole "Basic Accounts are going away" thing — and more users mad at not being told this, in advance, in an obvious place. (Such as a news announcement. On the other hand, apparently, news is for existing users, and this change only affects new users. Because nobody ever creates a secondary account or invites other people to LiveJournal.)

brad made a very interesting comment about the economic value of Basic Account holders: The free users, while not paying, were extremely valuable because they produced the content that the paying users were there to consume. You know, the whole network effect thing?

(I do wish people wouldn't tell him he should not have sold, though. I think he's said often enough that it was getting too much for him and that had he stayed at the top, he might have simply imploded eventually and deleted the entire thing. Though I suppose some might argue that that would have been better than the status quo...

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Edit: See also several other entries elsewhere.

Comments

[ibneko.livejournal.com]

Icon win.

But ugh, wow. Yeah, I read news, but I don't have time to read the comments. Thanks for pointing out that vital bit of information. (Gods, such a stupid move...) At least Brad is still on our side... :\

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read news, but I don't have time to read the comments.

Heh, neither do I.

I just noticed that comment thread because Jason Shellen posted a link to it in a comment on brad's entry.

At least Brad is still on our side... :\

Yeah -- I think he has been the whole time; there's just not much he can do about it since he no longer runs the place, even while he was still employed at 6A. (Now he's not even there any more.)

I like to think his chagrin at various changes is roughly the same as that of many users.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I'm upset at the loss of basic accounts.
I am mad at not being told.
I am really mad at then being lied to when they told us why they did it.
And I am furious that they clearly had the ability to do this better if they had simply consulted with their employees, but they clearly ignored all of the good advice they had and could have had and did something monumentally stupid.